Stop DWT-ing

LITTLE ROCK — OKAY, CONFESS: While you’re reading this, at the kitchen table or your desk at work, what else are you doing? Finishing off your oatmeal? Applying last touches of makeup? Texting with friends about tonight’s plans?

We understand. Multitasking rules. Impatience is a national affliction. We know, because we suffer from it, too.

But when you slip behind the steering wheel, all of that changes. Driving is multitasking. It’s paying attention to the cars in front, to the side and behind you; maintaining safe speed; watching for changing traffic lights; staying in your lane; being alert in case, say, a child runs into traffic.

Yes, we’re telling drivers what they already know. But many Americans still text and drive, even though it is against the law in many states.

AT&T has launched a public education campaign to persuade scofflaws not to text while driving. The slogan is a message all drivers should heed: It can wait.

Derrick Rose of the Chicago Bulls stars in one of the new public service ads. But the ad that captured our attention focuses on Wil Craig. In 2008, Craig, then 17, suffered a severe brain injury when the car he was a passenger in hit a tree. The driver, his girlfriend, was texting when she missed the brake and hit the accelerator, Craig says in the ad. “It was ‘where r,’ literally the word where, then the letter r,” he says haltingly. “Six letters.”

Craig says he “had to be cut out of the windshield.” He lingered in a coma for more than eight weeks.

We know that public education campaigns-and tough laws-can change attitudes and behavior. Check out Illinois’ record seat-belt-use rate-93.6 percent.

We also know it is hard to kick the texting habit on the road. But there is help. For example: There’s a new smartphone app called Rode Dog, designed by a California sixth-grader in a contest sponsored by AT&T. It allows the user to join a “pack” of friends and family who can check if you’re texting while driving. If you are, the other pack members can send an audible barking sound to your phone. The barking continues until the texting stops. Peer-or parental-pressure to remind drivers that nothing on the cell phone is worth your attention while on the road. Great idea.

We know that many Americans suffer severe withdrawal pangs if they’re not within constant reach of email, Twitter, Facebook, Google, etc. More cars are coming equipped with Internet connected technology, so motorists can surf the Web. If the car is not moving-as in parked-that’s fine. But if you’re checking your email while you’re driving, you’re taking as much of a risk as you would if you were texting. Whether you’re distracted by a hand-held phone or a dashboard screen, the result is the same. You are not watching the road.

Remember, six letters nearly killed Wil Craig. Six more letters for those who still text and drive: Stop it.